Praise for Hello, My Name Is Awesome, Second Edition “Top 10 Marketing Book.” —Geoffrey James, Contributing Editor, Inc. “How do you find the right name for your brand or company? This is what Watkins does for a living—her company is responsible for nam- ing a wedding brunch service Bloody Married and a frozen yogurt franchise Spoon Me—and her clever examples and advice will spare us all from putting the wrong foot forward.” —Adam Grant, Wharton Professor and author or coauthor of the New York Times bestsellers Give and Take, Originals, and Option B “Your brand is in a relentless fight for attention. This must-read book shows you how to prepare for battle and win with the strongest name possible.” —Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable “Zappos.com originally started out as ShoeSite.com, but that limited our potential future growth. A company’s name can be vital to its suc- cess. Reading the tips in this book can help anyone avoid the pitfalls.” —Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness and CEO, Zappos.com, Inc. “Insightful, irreverent, and eminently practical, Watkins’s Hello, My Name Is Awesome should be required reading for anyone naming a brand.” —S. Christian Wheeler, Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business “Fantastic book! Funny, down-to-earth, and practical, it’s chock-full of solid branding principles and huge ‘ahas’ cleverly delivered with hu- mor and fun. A classic example of blending wit and wisdom to make a message stick. Well done!” —Tim Gard, CSP, CPAE, Hall of Fame Speaker “The insight and processes that Alexandra Watkins reveals in Hello, My Name Is Awesome not only have direct application to your nam- ing process but also have direct application to thinking about your company from your customers’ perspective—not what you sell but why someone will decide to buy it. There is true wisdom here— intelligence plus experience—which makes it safe and dependable for you. There is true entertainment here—passion and provocation delivered without any reasonable restraint—which makes it a fabu- lous reading experience. My own company works with successful organizations in over ninety countries, and every one of them would be made measurably better by applying these unique concepts. My advice: get this book before your competitors do.” —Stan Slap, CEO, SLAP, and New York Times bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Conference Room B and Under the Hood “Your company or product probably needs all the help it can get. Watkins helped me name my firm, and I’m constantly told what a great name it is. Don’t pick a name until you’ve read Watkins’s book—you’ll want to have a name that you love forever!” —Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, New York Times bestselling author of Open Leadership, and coauthor of Groundswell “A fascinating examination of why some brand names are forgettable and others are abominable. This is the best guide ever to the art of great naming and should be required reading for all startup CEOs who ‘have a great idea’ for their company name!” —Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert and coauthor of Talk Triggers “I was skeptical about a how-to book on naming products and brands. Alexandra Watkins convinced me otherwise. Her book is a fun read with lots of practical advice.” —Patricia Roller, angel investor and former Co-CEO, Frog Design “The type of hands-on practical wisdom rarely found (but desperately needed) in the academic community.” —Michael Webber, former Dean, School of Management, University of San Francisco “We’ve got a terrible name. No one can spell it. No one can pronounce it. Don’t make the same mistake we made. Read this book and let Alexandra Watkins guide you away from the ‘we thought we were being clever with our name, but now we just look silly’ syndrome.” —Matt Ruby, founder and CEO, Vooza “This is the perfect book for kick-starting entrepreneurs, brand manag- ers, and practicing creatives.” —Pat Hanlon, founder and CEO, Thinktopia, and author of Primal Branding Awesome How to Create Brand Names That Stick SECOND EDITION ALEXANDRA WATKINS Berrett–Koehler Publishers, Inc. Hello, My Name Is Awesome Copyright © 2014, 2019 by Alexandra Watkins All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permis- sion of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 1333 Broadway, Suite 1000 Oakland, CA 94612-1921 Tel: (510) 817-2277, Fax: (510) 817-2278 www.bkconnection.com Ordering information for print editions Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the Berrett-Koehler address above. Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most book- stores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929- 2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact Berrett- Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626. Distributed to the U.S. trade and internationally by Penguin Random House Publisher Services. Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Second Edition Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9998-6 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9999-3 IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8489-0 Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-8490-6 2019-1 Book producer and text designer: BookMatters; copyeditor: Mike Mollett; proofreader: Janet Reed Blake; indexer: Leonard Rosenbaum; Cover designer: Adam Johnson To my awesome mom, Joan Casale. Thank you for being there for every chapter of my life, and every page of this book. Again. Say my name. —Walter White, Breaking Bad CONTENTS What’s New, Pussycat? vii Preface xi Introduction 1 1 SMILE: The 5 Qualities of a Super-Sticky Name 5 2 SCRATCH: The 7 Deal Breakers 33 3 Domain Names: Secrets, Strategies, and Silliness 61 4 Creative Brief: Your Brand Name Road Map 76 5 Brainstorming: How to Be an Idea Machine 84 6 Corporate Creativity: The Power of Names in the Workplace 102 7 Name Changes: Pros and Cons 114 8 Name Review: Guardrails for Groups 119 Resources 129 Gratitude 131 Index 137 About Eat My Words 143 About Alexandra 145 Ask Alexandra 149 This page intentionally left blank WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT? Since this book was first published in 2014, I’ve amassed enough new stories, eye-opening examples, and lucrative brainstorming sources to practically write a new book about brand names. That’s what this fifth- anniversary second edition feels like. More than 50 percent of the content here is brand spankin’ new. Not “new” as in I was too lazy to add any- thing of substance so I regurgitated the old content and fattened up the pages with extraneous fluff. Nope. New as in I was hell-bent on writing a bigger and better book because I had so much valuable new material to share and wanted to give you the Fort Knox of naming know- how. This is solid gold, Baby! Here are just a few of the many updates: I’ve doubled the number of brainstorming tools and techniques, digging deeper into the hidden treasures of the online goldmine. You’ll discover that it’s never been easier to come up with loads of creative names quickly. My new list of 10 Bonus Brainstorming Sources includes a little-known website where you’ll discover more vii than 1,200 idea-inspiring name generators. (You’ll be surprised at what looking at mutant species names will spark.) You’ll find even more secrets and strategies to nab an available domain name. Not the verbal vomit that looks like someone got drunk and played Scrabble. You’ll learn how to get a domain name that people can actually pronounce and spell. And I’ll show you how to get great domain names without having to fork over big bucks. You’ll be inspired by all the creative solutions people have come up with, including one for a turkey company that will make even vegans smile. I’ve made a significant modification to my 12-point name evaluation filter, the SMILE & SCRATCH test. The M in SMILE, which formerly stood for “Meaning- ful,” now stands for “Memorable.” (The importance of your name being meaningful is woven throughout the book.) You’ll learn how the names we are most likely to remember are associated with words and concepts we already know. I illustrate this with several amusing sto- ries and personal anecdotes, including tales of a teeter- ing tiki bar and my encounter with a surfer dude named Coconut Joel. Plus, you’ll read about a name millions of us have exclaimed with glee. (Hint: it kinda rhymes with macaroni and is just as much fun to say.) This book tells so many cautionary tales of massive fails that it could have been titled “Hello, My Name Is viii ✦ WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT? Bonehead.” Wait until you read about the blunder Whole Foods made when they partnered with a restaurant in 2018. (Perhaps you saw the news headline: “Come for the racism. Stay for the disease.”) Diseases run rampant throughout this book. I suppose I could have also titled the book “Hello, My Name Is Infectious.” The antidote to ill-fated names is of course awesome names, of which you will find plenty.